Dynamic Simulation of Hydrogen Iodide Decomposition in Catalytic Multi-Tubular Reactor

Abstract

Sulfur-Iodine thermochemical cycle process has been considered a promising method to generate hydrogen from water. One of the main limitations of this process lies in the hydrogen iodide decomposer section, which requires substantial amount of heat at high temperature. The present study analyses the heat transfer limitation effect on the performance of hydrogen iodide decomposition in a multi-tubular catalytic reactor by means of dynamic simulation. The extensive numerical simulation shows that the inlet temperature heating medium (Helium gas) should be at least 700°C so to enable at least 90% conversion when the inlet molar fraction of hydrogen iodide is 0.6. Lowering the inlet heating medium will require the reduction in the inlet molar fraction of hydrogen iodide in order to keep the conversion at 90% and above.